My somewhat literal answer is Mel Brooks’ 1967 satire The Producers. The film’s big musical number, when we finally see the offensive, Hitler-glorifying stage play that Zero Mostel’s and Gene Wilder’s characters have concocted, contains the memorable line “Springtime for Hitler in Germany.” The line, the song, and the rest of the film always comes to mind on the first warm day of the year, when a pleasant breeze and bright sun suggest springtime is around the corner. For obvious reasons, I never actually sing the song out loud, unless it is to my dog while we’re out enjoying the fine air, in which case I change the lyrics to something a little more innocuous. It is springtime for my pug, winter for the two asshole golden retrievers down the block. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]
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Every spring usually around Easter I watch field of dreams, partially because of the season changing and the anticipation of summer, partly because spring training is well underway and mostly because it was one of the first movies I watched after my mom passed and it helped and continue s to “ease the pain” so to speak on an annual basis.
Oh, man, the woman with the pretzel pasties never fails to make me laugh.
I recall how in the spring of ‘94 there was a barrage of excellent albums released within a few weeks of each other… Hell, within several days. Beck’s “Mellow Gold,” one of the strangest major-label debuts ever, came out March 1. Soundgarden’s “Superunknown” and Nine Inch Nails “The Downward Spiral” came out on the SAME DAMN DAY, March 8, and Morrissey’s “Vauxhall and I” came out a week later… before the month was out, Primal Scream’s followup to “Screamadelica” was released, which while a huge disappointment did add to the excitement of the month. So, yes, where I lived there was also an early spring that year, so amid the other fun stuff there was an embarrassment of riches of new, good music to delve into.
Primal Scream’s followup to “Screamadelica” was released, which while a huge disappointment did add to the excitement of the month.Kurt Cobain’s review was less charitable.
Vohaul was a baddy from the Space Quest games. I didn’t realize his name was a reference to anything until now.
The album’s title may be a reference to the 1987 film Withnail and I. Vauxhall is an area of London noted for its gay clubs, and there is also a British car manufacturer of the same name.But yea, sludge vohaul, forgot about the old space quest games. The time travel one (where you traveled between old games and into future crazy ones that hadnt been made yet) was a classic
With Spring? Why, our springy Lord of Darkness Coily, the Anticipator of Complaints, the Redemption Refuser, the Nightly Visitor of Madness of course!
So one clod says one thing and the whole world suffers?
There’s still butter and meatloaf!
+one star for excellent use of the world ‘clod’.
I have a version of California Dreaming for each of the seasons:
All the leaves are green
And the sky is blue
I went for a walk
April flowers in bloom
But my favorite version of the song is:
All the leaves are orange
And the sky is orange
Everything is orange
‘Cause nothin’ rhymes with orange
Door hinge.
Beginning of baseball season, so: A League of Their Own, Bull Durham, Major League.
Bambi. The spring segment left a powerful impression on me when I was a kid… I hoped human courtship was as easy as that for rabbits or skunks but correctly feared it would be pretty much like it is for deer.
Being hunted.
My birthday is in early Spring, and a long time ago, after reading about it in a PC Gaming Magazine, I had asked for Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim for my Birthday, because it sounded like my kind of game. I was absolutely right, and I was locked into my computer for 2 straight days. This was right when we started cracking the windows open, so there was fresh air finally filling my long-stagnant room, and my eyes were itchy but I played through the entire game, loving every minute of it. Now, every time we start cracking the windows for the season, I get the urge to play through again. It’s about that time again, and thankfully, the game has been preserved on GOG and Steam.
Ddefinitely Best Coast’s debut album Crazy For You. I grew up in the Midwest, where it’s cold and snowy until well into April. The second the temp gets into the 50s or so, I always throw it on. It makes it finally feel warm
My one is almost, if not more, offensive than Caitlin’s, Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Unlike her, I do sing it aloud, once memorably as a duet with a coworker while we closed the library at night. Just remember, “It’s not against any religion to want to dispose of a pigeon.”
I don’t endorse this behavior, but…
He reminds me a little of Jeff Goldblum, and now I want Jeff Goldblum to do a cover of this song.
And I want to subscribe to your newsletter.
That would be delightful!
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues album came out May 2011 at a formative period in my life. A lot of changes were on the horizon (a recent break up, high school graduation, leaving home, etc) and this album always brings me back to that Spring. One of my all time favorite albums.
XTC’s Skylarking- I like to play it on the first nice day in spring, start to finish.
Not sure why, but the first thing that came to mind was Jane by Elf Power.
There’s nothing particularly spring-specific about The Stone Roses, but I first discovered them during the winter of 2009 and played their debut album so often during that time that it’s indelibly linked to that time period. That winter was absolutely brutal in Michigan, and I spent so much time being outside in the cold that I was constantly wishing and hoping for spring. There is something warm-sounding about many of the songs on that album, so when the first proto-spring days rolled around (when it’s 45 and sunny but you’re desperate and count it anyway) playing it always felt like we’d turned a corner.
I lurve them. Although, if you remember…they would keep announcing tour dates (at least in Los Angeles) and then have to cancel because certain members of the band would have their visas revoked due to various things, most likely droogs. But they eventually played LA at the Hollywood Palladium. I was so excited to see them and they just suuuuuuuucked so hard. I should say, the Ian Brown sucked so hard. He was so dreadfully out of tune. I have vivid memories from their music and that era with the whole Madchester scene but that concert really kind of tainted my memories.
There’s nothing particularly spring-specific about The Stone Roses, but I first discovered them during the winter of 2009 and played their debut album so often during that time that it’s indelibly linked to that time period. That winter was absolutely brutal in Michigan, and I spent so much time being outside in the cold that I was constantly wishing and hoping for spring. There is something warm-sounding about many of the songs on that album, so when the first proto-spring days rolled around (when it’s 45 and sunny but you’re desperate and count it anyway) playing it always felt like we’d turned a corner.
So many choices. ‘A Dirge’ by Rossetti after it was the epigram in The Cuckoo’s Calling, with its haunting juxtaposition of birth and death themes against imagery of birds and animals associated with contrasting seasons; ‘Adlestrop’ by Edward Thomas with its quiet pre-war naturalism. Boccherini’s birdsong-esque String Quintet in E Major. But on reflection, I’m going to have to go with:‘Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon. And the orchards’ll be in blossom. And the birds’ll be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields. And eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?’A relentlessly determined moment and image of hope for the future even in the direst of circumstances; a reminder that you can keep going if you’re holding onto something. It’s for that reason that I think February is the best month to rewatch LOTR – it may be cold and windy outside at the time, but if you just hold on long enough a season of renewal will arrive. It’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass; a new day will come, and when the sun shines it’ll shine out the clearer.
BASEBALL!
I have two date-based songs that carry my from one end of the season to
the other. First is “The 5th of February” by John Finnemore:
and “First of May” by Jonathan Coulton (which is very fun to do at karaoke, btw).
Together they really sum up the feelings of spring to me, from the soggy beginning to the hope at the end, and I have to play each on their respective dates.
Finnemore is an absolute genius. His Souvenir Programme sketch where Victor Hugo goes to Notre Dame cathedral to celebrate finishing his latest book is an absolute underrated gem of comedy.
I’m going to flip the script here, because in Australia it’s the start of autumn, not spring. So there are two things I think of: one is Warcraft 3, where a couple of the missions in the human campaign, where Arthas is starting to lose his mind and doing things like massacring villagers, clearly take place in autumn, which adds to the wonderful, terrible sense of foreboding. The other one is ‘Over the Garden Wall’, which goes the whole hog with lovely, rich autumn colours while also evoking the sense of decay and darkness of an approaching winter.
XTC’s Syylarking technically starts with summer and makes its way through the season cycle, but for me its heart is deeply embedded in springtime.
Does Lair of the White Worm being my favorite Easter film count?
Ken Russell at his most rabidly indulgent? Amanda Donohoe at her most debauched? Sounds like the rebirth of flowers, leaves and pollen to me.
“Doin Time” by Sublime, which is a lose cover of “Summertime” which is ironic because we’re talking about Spring, but there ya go.Also, 7th Heaven. I don’t know why.
Not a specific work, but the first day that you can roll your windows down, I have the overwhelming urge to break out the Pixies. I sort of link the energy in their albums to the unrestrained energy that comes from stuff blooming and ice rapidly melting.
One word: Baseball.
This is painfully obvious but Agnieszka Holland’s adaptation of “The Secret Garden”. It single-handidly rekindled my faith in movies in the nineties. As far as music, Lush’s “Gala” sounds absolutely perfect that first day you can crack open the car windows.
A little on the nose, but it’s gotta be this for me.
This is tough. Since spring is really just people waiting for summer. Music wise, there are two that come to mind. First one is Second one is: It just reminds me of birds chirping / and flowers blooming. At the same time the lyrics are pretty depressing and great!
Whoever came up with the idea of sleigh bells in the background during “winter for Poland and France” should’ve been given a Grammy.
Not really pop culture, but american culture, nevertheless.. as a mid 40’s guy, I still take St. Pat’s day off (plus the day after- very key!) and it always feels like spring after that. Usually it’s still a tiny bit chilly that the Guiness or the jello shots seem to ward off, but it’s so much fun to be day drinking when you normally should be at the office.
I discovered Lucinda Williams’s music in the spring of ‘05 and have many fond memories of coming back to my dorm room after a late-morning class and listening to Car Wheels on a Gravel Road with the windows open and the warm breeze blowing in. It’s probably 90% that memory, but I would still argue that there’s something springlike about that album.